PRESENT: Brian Lutz, Joe Brown, Julie Jones, Brian Luckett, Molly Henderson, Anthony Eschmann, Michael Owings (by telephone)
The meeting was called to order by President Jones at 7:10 pm. The first order of business was the nomination of new members to the board. Several names were mentioned; they will be contacted to see if they might be interested in serving.
Next we considered a program for the next general meeting and where it should be held. We agreed that we would like to meet at Luna Libre if that is available to us. The topic decided upon was a representative from an Alliance of Neighborhood Organizations (?do they have a name?) to encourage people to participate in the process of revising the regulations regarding Short Term Rentals (STR.)
Julie clarified that the name of Folwell Dunbar had been submitted to represent Bywater on the HDLC.
There is a building on the corner of Louisa and Burgundy which has newly installed industrial lighting around the building. They should be reported to the HDLC as this does not fit into Historic District guidelines.
There will be 3 meetings with the city council to express our concerns and opinions regarding STR’s. The board agreed unanimously on these points to stress:
1. One unit per square and the owner/operator must be a natural person.
2. After three citations for violations the property is eliminated from further participation.
Councilmember Morrell has stated that nothing/no one will be grandfathered in.
1 STR per square block
1 owner/operator per STR
1 STR per parcel
We also recommended that after 3 strikes—still to be decided how to define serious strike—the PROPERTY (not the owner, who could create a different LLC or nominate his wife, child, etc.) will be out of business for a long time (still to be decided how long, suggestions range from 1 to 10 years).
We nominated Folwell Dunbar for HDLC some time ago (as per earlier board meeting). Freddie King has endorsed him, so it’s now up to the Mayor. It should be decided soon.
Submitted
Anthony Eschmann
Member of the Board